Jeff Bezos announced that one of his teams has located the engines from Apollo …

Jeff Bezos reported on his Bezos Expeditions website that one of his teams has located the engines from Apollo 11 at a depth of 14,000 feet, where they fell into the Atlantic on July 16, 1969.

The F-1 engines are some of the largest rocket engines ever built. Weighing 18,500 pounds, they're 19 feet tall. There's no doubt they're valuable should they be recovered intact; they're a priceless piece of the spacecraft that first took humankind to the Moon.

According to the NASA website, the Saturn S-1C first stage fell about 38 miles before hitting water roughly 55 miles downrange from Cape Kennedy. The majority of the stage is composed of aluminum and Inconel, and would not have corroded appreciably in saltwater. Likewise, the F-1 engines are composed of Inconel, aluminum, stainless steel and copper. All of those materials are relatively immune to seawater and might very well survive many years of immersion.

It's not clear just how much of the stage survived the impact itself. The tank would have fallen into the ocean at an angle, with the engines at the lower end. Bezos plans to find out, and will attempt to recover at least one, which he imagines NASA will donate to the Smithsonian.

A close-up of the engines in question, with some NASA employees for scale.

35 Reader Comments

Might not get the headlines of some lost precious metal, but I think it's an even greater treasure and a very cool find. Would be great to have that added to the Smithsonian. Also since it's not mentioned in the article, Inconel is a series of superalloys based primarily on nickel-chromium. Besides resistance to corrosion and oxidation they're a lot more resistant to thermal creep.

"The F-1 rocket engine is still a modern wonder — one and a half million pounds of thrust, 32 million horsepower, and burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second."

That burn rate is impressive. As is all the plumbing seen in the photo there. The number of things that had to go "right" to make this thing not be a giant stick of dynamite is so completely beyond my comprehension...

Likewise, the F-1 engines are composed of Inconel, aluminum, stainless steel and copper. All of those materials are relatively immune to seawater and might very well survive many years of immersion.

I dunno, it might depend on one's take of "relatively immune". Seawater is some pretty insidious stuff, especially when it comes to metal. I guess we'll see if one is brought to the surface.

As for the drama of it all, take a look at the scale of the engine in the picture. This is the type of scale, power and engineering commitment it takes to "get somewhere" just within our planetary system.

And it has long since been abandoned. Politicians may talk of a "vision" on the campaign trail, but until the day you see them rolling out something like that, it's all just lip service appeal to a romantic past.

If it was the government spending money I'd be against it as there are bigger problems at the moment, but it's not the government and there are worst ways for a rich dude to spend his money. Way worst ways.

Likewise, the F-1 engines are composed of Inconel, aluminum, stainless steel and copper. All of those materials are relatively immune to seawater and might very well survive many years of immersion.

I dunno, it might depend on one's take of "relatively immune". Seawater is some pretty insidious stuff, especially when it comes to metal. I guess we'll see if one is brought to the surface.

As for the drama of it all, take a look at the scale of the engine in the picture. This is the type of scale, power and engineering commitment it takes to "get somewhere" just within our planetary system.

And it has long since been abandoned. Politicians may talk of a "vision" on the campaign trail, but until the day you see them rolling out something like that, it's all just lip service appeal to a romantic past.

Inconel is a brand name group of nickel based alloys comes in many flavours, and have varying resistance to seawater. According to Wikipedia, the F-1s were made of Inconel X-750 which a low molybdenum variety. Unfortunately, it has relatively low resistance to seawater corrosion, and can also suffer crevice corrosion. Copper should be OK, but again, most varieties of stainless are useless in seawater. Also, the aluminium is likely to sacrificially corrode to protect other materials. If the engines had fallen in shallow water, they would likely be in a fairly poor condition. However, lucky for Bezos and geeks everywhere, the cold temperatures and lack of oxygen at the sort of depths he's talking about here should have arrested the corrosion mechanisms preserved them nicely.

If anyone from Bezos' team are reading, when you recover the engines, make sure they are washed thoroughly with fresh water as soon as you can, getting into every crevice to prevent crevice corrosion of the Inconel and loss of the aluminium (you'll need to plan ahead to have sufficient potable water available on site). Then air dry as fast and as thoroughly as possible. Contact a good corrosion engineer (/waves hand and jumps up and down to volunteer) or the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in Houston for advice on preservation of these beauties.

Wow, they are 19 feet tall? hmm.. very compact for a heavy item like that.

There's a beautiful shot at the beginning of "In the Shadow of the Moon". It starts with a close up of an engineer tightening something with a wrench, then zooms out to show him working on one of the F-1s then zooms out further to show the whole of the base of the Saturn V. The first time I saw that I was thinking 'hmmm, that looks fiddly but cool' , then 'man that is a *big* rocket engine and then I think my jaw just hung open.

The size and scale of that rocket was just awesome and I completely agree with Sporkme's comment above. Wish I'd been around to see one lift off for real.

The complexity of those engines [in the picture] is beyond belief. Sad that we had that technology in the 60's but seem to be doing little to use and/or improve upon it. This is where our tax money should be going--not to distant lands.

The complexity of those engines [in the picture] is beyond belief. Sad that we had that technology in the 60's but seem to be doing little to use and/or improve upon it. This is where our tax money should be going--not to distant lands.

The complexity of those engines [in the picture] is beyond belief. Sad that we had that technology in the 60's but seem to be doing little to use and/or improve upon it. This is where our tax money should be going--not to distant lands.

Aye, the 60's were probably the last "can-do" decade, when bold vision and technological optimism had enough public support to overcome NIMBY-ism and risk-aversion.

While I'm sure the Smithsonian would love to have an engine from Apollo-11, there is already an Apollo engine on display (set up with mirrors to allow guests to see what it would look like with the proper array of five engines).

The world's economies are going to hell in a handbasket, unemployment is at crazy levels - a third of the world does not even have enought fresh water on a dialy basis - and yet someone has time to burn hundreds of millions on dregding up rusty tanks out of pure nostalgia? Wow, that's incredible. I need to start checking those prices on Amazon a bit more carefully...

The world's economies are going to hell in a handbasket, unemployment is at crazy levels - a third of the world does not even have enought fresh water on a dialy basis - and yet someone has time to burn hundreds of millions on dregding up rusty tanks out of pure nostalgia? Wow, that's incredible. I need to start checking those prices on Amazon a bit more carefully...

*shrug*

Just imagine the fun that'll ensue when the Megamillions winners(s) are found and everyone (who didn't win ) starts telling them what they should do with the money.

The complexity of those engines [in the picture] is beyond belief. Sad that we had that technology in the 60's but seem to be doing little to use and/or improve upon it. This is where our tax money should be going--not to distant lands.

Aye, the 60's were probably the last "can-do" decade, when bold vision and technological optimism had enough public support to overcome NIMBY-ism and risk-aversion.

Sadly, I suspect that the 60's was not just the last "can-do" decade for technological optimism, but for social optimism as well. Blacks fought for their civil rights and college students protested the Vietnam war, the suppression of women, and other social issues. People stood up for their beliefs and got involved with righting wrongs.

Listen to Chicago's "Dialog" from 1972 (or read the lyrics at http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/vi ... _and_ii%29 among others). When first released it painted the comparison between a socially involved person, perhaps a college student or dropout but not necessarily, and a socially uninvolved (or purposely unaware) college student with a privileged background. But in modern times it might as well be 1960's man talking with 2012 man.

Anyone that reads this site on a regular basis is probably aware of at least some of the amazing things that have been invented or refined in computers and other technological areas. We don't yet have a "transporter" (at least not a useful one) but Star Trek's "communicator", "tricorder", and electronic tablet have all come true. But we've forgotten what ELSE Star Trek was about: The idea that whites, blacks, Asians, Russians (at the height of the Cold War), men, women, and even people from other planets would all work together in peace as equals towards a common goal. Star Trek's moral compass was as front and center as the technological advances of the day. Pretty amazing considering it premiered just two years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Now we have a re-surging interest in oppressing women over birth control as well as a disturbing growth trend in the mistreatment of minorities. We've not only abandoned many of the technological aspirations of the 60s but the social ones as well. Most disturbing of all is the number of Americans who see nothing wrong with either one. Too many of us believe the lie that the 50s were the "Happy Days." They were only the "Happy Days" if you were white, male, and affluent. Otherwise you had limited prospects and the deck was stacked against you.